Mrinal Sen

A major figure in India cinema, writer-director Mrinal Sen drew international acclaim for his quiet but intensely dramatic explorations of political and society conflict in his native country, including "Bhuvan Shome" (1969) and the award-winning "Kharji" (1983).  Born May 14, 1923 in Faridpur, a town in what is now Bangladesh, to a Hindu family, Sen traveled to Calcutta as a young man to study physics at Scottish Church College. However, he never finished his degree due to a growing interest in politics and the Indian Communist Party. Though never a member, he became associated with members of the party's cultural wing, the Indian People's Theatre Association, which in turn sparked an interest in creative endeavors. While working as an audio technician in Calcutta, Sen discovered a book on film aesthetics, which spurred him to being writing about film. He made his directorial debut with 1955's "Raat Bhore," which he regarded as a disaster, but subsequent efforts like "Neel Akasher Neechey" ("Under the Blue Sky," 1958) showcased his growing confidence behind the camera and a keen understanding of social issues in modern India. Sen came to international attention with the release of 1969's "Bhuvan Shome," which starred his frequent collaborator, actor Utpal Dutta, as a railway worker whose narrow world view is expanded by a hunting trip. "Bhuvan Shome" was named Best Feature at the National Film Awards, and established Sen as a contemporary of such social observers as Satyajit Ray, whose work - often referred to as "parallel cinema" - offered a more sobering and reflective alternative to the bright, giddy Bollywood musical. In the 1970s, Sen focused on political allegories like "Interview" (1971) and "Calcutta 71" (1972), which addressed societal and class ills in Calcutta, often through a variety of aesthetics that moved away from narrative storytelling and favored more experimental approach. His films from the period were often unsparing in their criticism of middle-class and bourgeois values, which imposed punishing conditions on the poor and working class. The arrival of 1980s' "Ek Din Pratidin" ("And Quiet Rolls the Dawn") at the Cannes Film Festival helped to introduce Sen to an appreciative international audience of filmmakers and critics, and he would go on to win the jury prize at the 1983 Cannes festival for "Kharji" ("The Case is Closed"), about a middle-class family thrown into chaos when their neglect causes the death of a young servant. Sen continued to examine societal issues in his subsequent films, though these efforts operated along looser storylines that often left the final word to the viewer: in "Ek Din Achanak" ("Suddenly, One Day," 1989), the sudden disappearance of a professor unmoors his family, who struggle to understand the reasons for his absence. He directed "Aamar Bhuban" ("This is My Land"), in 2002; the drama, which encapsulated Indian societal frustrations through a failed marriage, proved to be his final film, though he would spend the next decade receiving tribute for his body of work, including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, given by the Indian government to its most respected filmmakers. After being named to the Oscar Academy in 2017, Sen died of a heart attack at the age of 95 on December 30, 2018.